OSCAR WILDE AND THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

His family was rich in fact his father was a brilliant surgeon and his mother was a journalist and a writer of verses. She wanted a daughter, so when Oscar, a second boy, was born, she started to dress him like a girl for many years. This influenced Oscar Wilde's sexual tendency. He studied at Trinity College and was fascinated by classics, after he went to Oxford and became a Walter Pater's disciple.

He adopted extravagant poses: for example, he dressed exotically, he decorated his room with sunflowers, ecc.He travelled in Usa, and when he returned to London, he married Constance Lyod and had two child. He was full of originality, wit and brilliant in expressions, so he started to write in different literary forms so he was considered also an eclectic man. Wilde's literary talent was revealed in 1880 with the publication of some works like "The Happy Prince and the Other Tale" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray".

OSCAR WILDE THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY SUMMARY

After he produced also a series of plays like "Lady Windermere's far" and "An Ideal husband", in which he often expressed the hypocrisy and the false moralise of the Victorian age. He became very famous and popular, he was loved and accepted by all the aristocratic lounges. But during his life, he had many relation-ship with some man, especially with Lord Alfred Douglas or so-called "Bosie". Bosie's father accused him publically of homosexual practises, so Wilde was imprisoned with hard labour for two years, but when he was released he became poor and unknown; he died alone at the age of 56 in Paris. The dandy Wilde was typical bourgeois artist, an aristocratic whose elegance was the symbol of the superiority of his spirit. He totally adopted the imperative moral "Art for Art's sake", in fact he lived only for pleasure and for arte and believed that art hadn't to have moral implications. Wilde saw the artist as an alien in a materialistic world, like an "outcast". The dandy must be distinguished by the "bohemian" that allied him-self to the masses, to the urban proletariat.

OSCAR WILDE THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY RIASSUNTO

The picture of Dorian Gray.Dorian Gray is considered the most important work of Oscar Wilde.Dorian is a young aristocratic man of extraordinary beauty and innocence. A day he met a painter called Basil Hallward, that fascinated by him, decided to portray him. Thanks to Basil, Dorian knew also Lord Henry, a cynical man that influenced him to enjoy his life because youth and beauty would be passed with time. so Dorian desired the eternal youth and the signs of age, experiences and vices appeared on the portray. Dorian lived only for pleasure and became corrupted, insensitivity, and when Basil found the corrupted image of the picture, Dorian decided to kill him.